As the IPL juggernaut rolls on into its second week, CricViz’s Rufus Bullough looks at the key performances from this latest week of games, and picks the best team as ranked by our Match Impact model.
1. Shubman Gill
Impact – Batting: +12.6, Fielding: +14.9 – Total: +27.5
Matches: 2, Runs: 75 at 8.03 rpo, Catches: 2
Shubman has had a relatively quiet week with the bat, but his exceptional week in the field gets him onto this team of the week list. His well paced innings against the Rajasthan Royals of 47 (34) brought him a tidy impact of +15.1. Smart catches at crucial points in the match have really boosted Gill’s impact as well, most notably his catch to dismiss Riyan Parag which had a low probability of success according to our fielding collection data. This sharp chance at backward point, taken at a crunch stage of the game, gave Gill an impact of +14.25, which really signifies its importance in the balance of the overall contest between the two sides.
2. Nitish Rana
Impact – Batting: +15.9, Fielding: 0 – Total: +15.9
Matches: 2, Runs: 80 at 9.23 rpo
A batting average of 40.00 across two games is just enough to see Nitish Rana squeeze onto this week’s list, thanks mostly to a swift 58 made from just 35 deliveries against the Delhi Capitals, finishing with an impact rating of +12.3. The stylish left hander took the attack to the Delhi bowlers, and took a particular liking to the returning Ravi Ashwin, scoring 19 from 7 balls against the veteran spinner. The knock was not enough however, as Kolkata failed to chase down the huge target of 229 set by Delhi.
3. Ishan Kishan
Impact – Batting: +18.4, Fielding: +5.4 – Total: +23.8
Matches: 3, Runs: 158 at 8.38 rpo, Catches: 1
The young left-hander has made a fast start to this IPL season after being left out of the first match. He scored a spellbinding 99 (58) on his season debut which netted him an impact of +24.3. His other two contributions with the bat of 28 from 32 (-5.5) and 31 from 23 (-0.4) both had negative impact, but his exceptional first innings of the week leaves him in credit, and puts him on this list. His three good scores make him the highest run scorer of the week. He also took a well executed, sharp chance diving to his right at short third man, to dismiss a well set David Warner which further added +4.2 to his total impact for the week which finished at +23.8.
4. Eoin Morgan
Impact – Batting: +30.5, Fielding: 0 – Total: +30.5
Matches: 2, Runs: 78 at 11.41 rpo
An exceptional run rate of 11.41 is the reason Morgan gets onto this week’s list. An experienced and perfectly paced knock of 34 from 23 balls, shepherded Kolkata to an excellent total of 174/6 on a tricky pitch in Dubai against Rajasthan. This gave the England white-ball captain an impact of +10.3, along with a win and a perfect start to the week for the men in purple and gold. Morgan then went ballistic in Sharjah three days later smashing 44 from 18 balls at 14.66 rpo, amassing an impact of +20.2 for the match. A bittersweet knock however, as Kolkata were unable to chase down the huge Delhi total already mentioned earlier on.
5. Rishabh Pant
Impact – Batting: +5.9, Fielding: 3.1 – Total: +9.0
Matches: 2, Runs 66 at 9.00 rpo, Catches: 2
Rishabh Pant makes it onto the list this week as the wicket-keeping option. His innings of 37 from 18 balls against Kolkata gave him an impact of +4.8, and was his best innings of the week. He also has taken two catches, one to dismiss Shubman Gill and the other David Warner. Both catches together gave Pant an impact of +3.9 in the field. Were it not for a fumble and subsequent bye against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Pant’s fielding impact would have stayed at +3.9 for the week.
6. Kieron Pollard
Impact – Batting: +43.2, Bowling: +0.9, Fielding: +3.4 – Total: +47.5
Matches: 3, Runs: 132 at 13.89 rpo, Wickets: 0 at 8.25 rpo, Catches: 3
Kieron Pollard takes home this week’s most valuable player award with an impact of +47.5. His brutal innings of 60 from 24 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore, scoring at 15.00 runs per over, gives him the highest individual impact on a single game of the week (+21.4). His innings three days later against Kings XI of 47 from 20 netted him another stunning impact of +19.3. When you group this with some tight bowling at difficult periods of the game, and three smart catches in the outfield you arrive at his impact for the week of +47.5, Pollard’s current form is of serious concern to the other teams in the league, and will need to find a way to silence him going forward.
7. Krunal Pandya
Impact – Batting: +12.3, Bowling: +7.7, Fielding: +1.2 – Total: +21.2
Matches: 2, Runs: 20 at 30.00 rpo, Wickets: 2 at 7.72 rpo, Catches: 1
Krunal Pandya’s biblical display of hitting and steady bowling and fielding displays are enough to earn him the second all-rounders spot on this week’s list. By striking 20 from the last four balls of the innings, Pandya earned himself a batting impact of +12.3. This puts him 14th on the total batting impact list for this week, which is not too impressive itself, but when you consider he has only faced the four deliveries, it puts it into perspective. Pandya has also chipped away with a wicket against both Kings XI and Mumbai. His bowling effort of 1/27 against Kings XI gets him an impact of +5.6 for that game.
8. Jofra Archer
Impact – Bowling: +24.8, Batting: -2.5, Fielding: -1.0 – Total: 21.3
Matches: 2, Wickets: 3 at 4.50 rpo, Runs 22 at 9.28 rpo, Catches: 1
Once again Jofra features in our team of the week, and is one of two names on this week’s team sheet that had a similarly exceptional first week of the tournament. Archer has at his brilliant best, bowling with high pace and pin-point accuracy. In both matches this week, he conceded just 18 runs from his allotted overs. Intriguingly it was the match in which he took just the one solitary wicket which gave him the higher match impact of +13.2. This is due to the game situation in which he was bowling in. Our impact measure takes into account how set the batsman is, and therefore the difficulty of bowling at that time. In the RCB match, Archer bowled the majority of his deliveries against Paddikal and Kohli, who at the end of their innings were well set. Impact therefore rewarded Archer highly for dismissing Paddikal as well as being economical against Kohli when they were set and scoring freely against the other Rajasthan bowlers.
9. Rashid Khan
Impact – Bowling: +34.5, Batting: -7.6, Fielding: +1.7 – Total: +28.6
Matches: 3, Wickets: 4 at 4.00 rpo, Runs: 3 at 2.57 rpo, Catches: 1
Rashid Khan takes the fourth and final overseas spot in this week’s team after experiencing a resounding return to his best bowling form. Picking up three Delhi Capitals wickets for the cost of just 14 runs earned Khan a bowling impact of +17.6. Coupled with impacts of +10.3 for his 1/22 against Chennai, and +6.6 for his economical spell of 0/12 against Mumbai, Rashid has accrued the highest total bowling impact of anyone for the week, and earns himself a spot on our list.
10. Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Impact – Bowling: +15.3, Fielding: -0.9 – Total: +14.4
Matches: 2, Wickets: 3 at 6.27 rpo
Despite picking up an injury limiting him to just the two games this week, the Sunrisers opening quick looked to be back to somewhere near his best. He got the ball moving in the air consistently and looked to be a real handful for the opposition batters. Against Delhi Capitals he picked up the valuable wickets of Prithvi Shaw and Shimron Hetmyer which halted a promising looking chase, and allowed Sunrisers to get home comfortably. He achieved an impressive match impact of +8.0 for that bowling performance, as well as +7.3 for his 1/20 from 3.1 overs against Chennai. Here’s hoping he can shake off that injury and be back for the Sunrisers in the coming days.
11. Yuzvendra Chahal
Impact – Bowling: +9.0, Fielding: -1.9 – Total: +7.1
Matches: 2, Wickets: 4 at 9.00 rpo, Catches: 1, Dropped catches: 1
Chahal is back again, and it was a contrasting tale of fortunes in the two matches for the final player in our team of the week. In Chahal’s first match of the week against Mumbai indians, he was on the receiving end of a rampant Pollard and company, conceding 48 runs from his allotted overs, and registering a match impact of -9.1. Chahal was able to banish the demons from his game for the second encounter of the week, and against Rajasthan he registered figures of 3/24 from his four over slot. He amassed an impact rating of +18.1, the third highest single match impact bowling performance of the tournament, which well and truly rescued his week and means that he snuck into the team of the week for a second week running.
